Meta-heuristics for Feature Selection and Classification in Diagnostic BreastCancer

One of the most common kinds of cancer is breast cancer. The early detection of it may help lower its overall rates of mortality. In this paper, we robustly propose a novel approach for detecting and classifying breast cancer regions in thermal images. The proposed approach starts with data preprocessing the input images and segmenting the significant regions of interest. In addition, to properly train the machine learning models, data augmentation is applied to increase the number of segmented regions using various scaling ratios. On the other hand, to extract the relevant features from the breast cancer cases, a set of deep neural networks (VGGNet, ResNet-50, AlexNet, and GoogLeNet) are employed. The resulting set of features is processed using the binary dipper throated algorithm to select the most effective features that can realize high classification accuracy. The selected features are used to train a neural network to finally classify the thermal images of breast cancer. To achieve accurate classification, the parameters of the employed neural network are optimized using the continuous dipper throated optimization algorithm. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach in classifying the breast cancer cases when compared to other recent approaches in the literature. Moreover, several experiments were conducted to compare the performance of the proposed approach with the other approaches. The results of these experiments emphasized the superiority of the proposed approach.     

Study of selected trace elements in cancerous and non-cancerous human breast tissues from Sudanese subjects using instrumental neutron activation analysis

This study was performed to investigate the influence of cancer on selected trace elements among Sudanese patients with confirmed breast cancer. Instrumental neutron activation analysis was used to estimate contents of Se, Zn, Fe, Cr, Rb, Cs, Co and Sc in 40 subjects. Wilcoxon signed ranks test was used to examine if there was any difference in the concentrations of elements from normal and malignant tissues. It was found that Se, Zn and Cr elements from the malignant tissues are significantly elevated (P < 0.05) compared to the normal tissue. The results obtained have shown consistency with results obtained by some previous studies.     

Une plate-forme de validation multi-protocoles et multi-services Résultats d’expérimentation

This article presents the implementation of a validation platform based on formal methods and the experimental results obtained. This platform allows performing conformance and interoperability tests, analysing the specification and constructing a performance model for the services. It covers all stages of the validation which are: formal specification, test architecture definition, test generation and execution for the defined architecture, and performance evaluation. The test methods and architectures used here make it easier to detect and localise errors. The platform has been constructed within the framework of theRnrt (National Telecommunications Research Network) platform project, platonis. This platform is composed of a network integrating the different sites of the project partners. The principal application domains for the platform are telecommunication systems and mobile telephony. In particular, two different cases study are presented that illustrate the platform’s applicability to the test of mobile 3rd generation protocols and services usingWap, gprs andUmts. Nevertheless, the platform is generic and can be used for other types of communication protocols and services.     

CFD analysis of a supersonic air ejector. Part II: Relation between global operation and local flow features

This paper presents an original CFD analysis of the operation of a supersonic ejector. This study is based on CFD and experimental results obtained in the first part paper [A. Hemidi, F. Henry, S. Leclaire, J. M. Seynhaeve, Y. Bartosiewicz, Experimental and numerical analysis of the operation curve of a supersonic ejector, single-phase and two-phase operation, Submitted to Applied Thermal Engineering]. Results clearly demonstrates that a good predictions of the entrainment rate, even over a wide range of operating conditions, do not necessarily mean a good prediction of the local flow features. This issue is shown through the results obtained for two turbulence models, and also raises the problem of their assessment. In addition, an analysis based on the sonic line location in order to locate the choking cross-section is proposed in this paper. Based on this approach, this parameter allowed to propose an explanation of such disparities between good predictions of overall performances and significant discrepancies of local flow parameters.     

Building robust wavelet estimators for multicomponent images using Stein's principle.

Multichannel imaging systems provide several observations of the same scene which are often corrupted by noise. In this paper, we are interested in multispectral image denoising in the wavelet domain. We adopt a multivariate statistical approach in order to exploit the correlations existing between the different spectral components. Our main contribution is the application of Stein's principle to build a new estimator for arbitrary multichannel images embedded in additive Gaussian noise. Simulation tests carried out on optical satellite images show that the proposed method outperforms conventional wavelet shrinkage techniques.     

Investigation of the corrosion behavior of carbon steel coated with fluoropolymer thin films

Hydrophobic thin fluoropolymer films were deposited on carbon steel specimens using inductively coupled radio frequency plasma. Octafluorocyclobutane (C₄F₈) was used as gas source. The anticorrosion resistance of the deposited films in 3% sodium chloride aqueous solution was estimated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as well as by electrochemical techniques. Results have shown that a 90 nm fluoropolymer film shows the optimal film thickness in terms of adhesion stability and corrosive resistance. Upon aging in 3% sodium chloride aqueous solutions for a week a decrease of the fluorine concentration together with a layer-by-layer delamination of the polymer coating was observed together with some coating oxidation. A thin polymer film of about 9 nm remained on the steel interface which proved to stay unaltered over a period of a month. This makes the fluoropolymer film interesting as protective layer of metal and metal oxides.     

Variability of fresh- and salt-water marshes characteristics on the west coast of France: a spatio-temporal assessment

The degradation of water quality and the multiple conflicts of interest between users make marsh restoration very important. A Water Quality Evaluation System (WQES) was developed for river systems by the European Water Framework Directive (WFD). Some form of biologically-based, habitat-specific reference standard seems absolutely essential for wise management and stewardship of marsh ecosystems. The goal of this study was to develop a statistical method to define and to characterize a water body typology for drained marshes of the Charente-Maritime wetlands on the French Atlantic coast, placing particular emphasis on environmental factors as hydraulic functioning, human activities and pedological substratum. The Charente-Maritime marshes represent a good field study because of his high diversity of types of marshes and of anthropogenic activities in a restrictive area thus erasing spatial climatic effect (latitude effect). The statistical method developed here had permitted to define and characterize 12 different water bodies, 7 in freshwater (F1 to F7) and 5 in salt water marshes for the Charente-Maritime area. This typology demonstrated an important link between the size catchment area, nitrate concentrations, and leaching of precipitation from cultured soils. Even though the Charente-Maritime marshes are strongly impacted by humans, they may still retain the ability to remove nitrate. The increasing gradient of water renewal in the freshwater marshes from F1 to F7 explained the decreasing gradient of eutrophication. A better management of the hydrodynamic of the marshes can avoid eutrophication risk on the coastal sea area. Reliance on the WFD parameter set necessarily placed limits on the kinds of interpretations that could be made and on the study’s potential contribution to the basic science of marshes. Ecologically-based insights regarding both external flows (links between ecosystems, meta-ecosystem theory) and internal flows (structure of the planktonic food web) seem an essential prerequisite for further advances in the study of marsh ecosystems.     

Deterioration of a Tunisian coastal aquifer due to agricultural activities and possible approaches for better water management

The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of the impact of agricultural activities on groundwater quality in a semi‐arid coastal environment (Korba, Tunisia). Impacts have been assessed through groundwater samples that were analysed for a range of chemical and biological parameters. Results indicate that groundwater overexploitation for irrigation and fertiliser use have affected the quality of the groundwater not only by direct contamination but also seawater intrusion. The implementation of appropriate regulatory and economic instruments to foster sustainable practices in the agricultural sector have been analysed within the framework of the EC (European Community) FP6 (funding program 6) INECO (Institutional and Economic Instruments for Sustainable Water Management in the Mediterranean Region) Project. Through stakeholder involvement processes, the project analysed issues relating to the regulation and control of groundwater abstractions, the promotion of wastewater reuse, efficiency improvements in irrigation water use, as well as instruments to strengthen the socioeconomic and institutional environment towards better managing and conserving available groundwater resources.     

On the output feedback stability for non-linear uncertain control systems

In this paper, we will study the stability problem by output feedback of a class of uncertain control systems, whose nominal part is linear and whose uncertain part is norm-bounded by a known function. We propose an output controller that forces the state to the origin, in the global exponential stability sense.